Eye contact

[lifeinohio]

So, I went down to N.C. to visit my friends and do some riding on really cool roads.  My buddy and I went for a ride on Monday morning and we are crusing along and come up on a side road where this lady is coming up to the stop sign but she's acting like she's not going to stop.  She watches my buddy cross in front of her, and then keeps her eyes on him, never turning her head back to me, so I just stop in the middle of the road and wait(she had rolled into the intersection by now)and then she turned back and there I was...the surprise on her face was priceless!  I didn't flip her off, I just kind of waved her on(with my angry face).  So anyway if you can get eye contact with a stupid cager, do it, accident avoidance is best!

[SacDuc]

Good catch.   


My eyes dart back and forth between the front tires and the drivers head. Even if I think we are making eye contact I don't trust it.


sac

[spolic]

^ both good posts

[pitbull]

17 years of driving fire trucks has taught me eye contact counts for about two thirds of f*#* all. I've made eye contact with many drivers who've proceeded to attempt to turn, swerve, and otherwise direct their vehicle right into the path of the fire truck. Learning this lesson has saved my ass on the bike on several occasions.

watching the tire does work very well.

[Statler]

remember... eye contact is great but cagers will look into your eyes as they run into you..

[Queestce]

Yea I agree, I always look for eye contact when approaching an intersection. Usually you can see if a driver has acknowledged you or just glanced. I had a cop do it to me a few days ago. Glanced at me, then pulled out straight in front of me. I had slowed down anyway so it was fine, amusing to see his embarrassed look as he sped out of the way though. I've taken to covering my horn and passing light a lot when I'm riding in town, that little extra bit of insurance...

[fastwin]

Good catch.   


My eyes dart back and forth between the front tires and the drivers head. Even if I think we are making eye contact I don't trust it.


sac

I gave up on eye contact decades ago. Can't be trusted. Won't waste your time rehashing the hundreds of times I've had drivers look straight at me and do shit like I wasn't there! I had an older rider years ago tell me the same thing, forget the look, watch their front tire. The car only does what the front tire tells it to do. Sure, I still check out drivers but all I'm doing is classifying them. She's putting on make up and looking in the rear view mirror, he's texting, that guy is paying attention and driving OK, that teenager and his four buddies are rocking out to Smashing Pumpkins, etc. As far as the vehicle that they are in I just watch the front tires. It's kept me alive riding on the road for 41 years.

[redxblack]

My brother and I were side by side on our monsters at a red light. I went first on green with him following. Before he could go, the cager behind us hit him. She was only watching the light and didn't see either of us. 

[Heath]

This goes the reverse too.  The other day I was going up to an intersection. Doing the speed limit 45.  I am still a fair distance away and a car pulled out to enter the lane.  That was fine he had plenty of time to pull out get on the gas I would be no where near hitting him.  The problem was there was an old Honda cruiser, 250 or 500 tops.  That guy followed right behind them without looking at the intersection.  I damn near rear ended him because he had no power.  I slowed down quiet a bit to avoid it. 

Good thing for him I was expecting it and paying attention.  I flashed my high beams to which he kinda jumped.  I am guessing he was new rider with the mentality of "I am on a bike I am faster then anyone, damn cagers getting in my way."  Too many new riders I talk to around here have that mentality.  They are just not cautious.  I bet he goes to his buddies later and says wow this guy almost ran me over when I made a legal right hand turn.  When really he ran the red.

[arai_speed]

Fck eye contact!  Expect the worst and trust your instincts in a situation like that.

[d3vi@nt]

This brings up an interesting point; I believe that in AZ, (at least on a bicycle) each bike is considered an individual vehicle. So, even if you're riding two abreast and come to a stop sign, you cannot proceed together. Each vehicle must stop and wait for right-of-way before proceeding. I'm sure this is different from state to state.

Either way, it sounds like the driver was not paying attention so right-of-way wouldn't have meant anything.

[Bill in OKC]

Some drivers will see one bike when there are actually two (not sure about three).  I've had drivers change lanes into me after carefully waiting for a buddy on the lead bike to pass and then thinking the lane is clear.  FWIW

[RAT900]

Eye contact is meaningless if the viewer does not REGISTER and respond appropriately to what the ocular nerve is sending to the brain

studies have been done and it should never be trusted as an acknowledgement

here's some boring stuff on Pattern Recognition Theory etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition_(psychology)


http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~malik/papers/pnas-gafos.pdf